Hefei-Fuzhou High-Speed Railway Line, China

The Hefei-Fuzhou High-Speed Rail Line is a 806km line, which begins at Fuzhou in Fujian Province (southeast China) and terminates at Hefei in Anhui Province (Central China).

The line is an important section of the Beijing-Fuzhou railway line. It was approved by the State Development and Planning Commission in July 2009 and the project was announced by the Ministry of Railways in December 2009.

Construction of the Hefei-Fuzhou line began in April 2010 and is scheduled for completion in March 2014. It is estimated to cost CNY109.8bn ($16.9bn). China Railway High-speed (CRH) is the main operator of the regular high-speed trains.

Starting at Fuzhou the rail line runs through Nanping and Wuyishan in Fujian Province, Shangrao and Wuyuan in Jiangxi Province, and Huangshan, Jixi, Tongling and Chaohu in Anhui Province.

On completion, the travel time between Hefei and Fuzhou will be reduced to four hours from 14 hours and the time on the main line from Beijing to Xiamen will be reduced to nine hours from 31.5 hours.

The Hefei-Fuzhou rail line forms a part of the 4,800km international railway network in the economic zone, which has been planned for 2010-15.

Hefei-Fuzhou Railway Project

The Hefei-Fuzhou rail line is China's fourth high-speed line designed to run at a speed of 250km per hour on a two-wired, electrified standard gauge rail line. The other three lines are Beijing-Tianjin, Wuhan-Guangzhou and Zhengzhou-Xi’an high-speed railways.

The Hefei-Fuzhou will pass through two Unesco World Heritage sites: Mount Huangshan and Mount Wuyi. The route will have 170 bridges and 54 tunnels.

The Anhui section is 343km long. Its construction is estimated to cost CNY26.45bn. Of the total track length in Anhui more than 80% will be laid on bridges and in tunnels. The the 52km Tongling Yangtze River Rail road bridge is the longest bridge on this route.

The Hefei-Fuzhou high-speed railway line will connect to the Fuzhou-Xiamen high-speed railway in the south and the Hefei-Bengbu high-speed railway in the north.

The 274.9km Fuzhou-Xiamen line became operational in April 2010. Designed to travel at 250km per hour, the new line has reduced travel time between the two cities to 1.5 hours from 11 hours.

The Heifei-Fuzhou high speed rail line will also link with the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway and other railways leading to the coastal cities. This line is expected to promote communication and tourism between central and south-eastern China.

Local railway construction supervision company Shanghai Xianxing and engineering consultant Pöyry were sub-contracted for the work on Lot 5 of the Mingan section on the Hefei-Fuzhou railway line.

The Mingan section is 467km and Lot 5 measures 71km. The €3.2m contract was awarded by the Jingfu Railway Passenger Dedicated Line Anhui.

Rolling stock

China Railway High-speed has multiple train types. It operates CRH1, CRH2, CRH3 and CRH5 trains.

CRH1 is developed on Bombardier technology. CRH2 is based on E2 series Shinkansen and CRH5 is based on Alstom Pendolino ETR600. All three models have a maximum speed of 250km per hour. CRH3 is derived from Siemens Velaro and has a top speed of 350km per hour.

In June 2010, CRH ordered 20 CRH1 trains, each with eight cars, to add to its existing fleet. The Bombardier trains can accommodate 670 passengers.

The Hefei-Fuzhou line will accommodate trains with a speed of 250km per hour on the standard 1,435mm electrified double track.

Future plans

The economic zone plan, under which the Hefei-Fuzhou high-speed railway is being developed, includes electrification of the line from Hengfeng to Fuzhou.

A double-track, two-wired electrification, designed for a speed of 200km per hour, will be laid from Ganzhou to Longyan (Fujian Province) making it the largest railway line from Kumming (Yunnan Province) to Xiamen (Fujian Province).

Renovation of the Nanping-Sanming-Longyan railway line will form an important section of the Hangzhou-Guangzhou Railway. On completion this line will become the fastest passageway from the western coast of Taiwan Straits at Changjiang Delta to the Pearl River Delta.